Fuel-gage for automobiles.



l. A. BRITTON.

FUEL GAGE FOR AUTOMOBILES.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 6, 1914. RENEWED FEB. 26, 1917.

Patented May 15, 1911".

JARVIS BBITTON, 012' LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE NATIONAL MOTOR SUPPLY COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION.

"EL-GAGE ron auroiaoisrtns.

A ueatiain filed d'ulyfi 1914., serial no. 849,286.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JARVIS A. BRrr'roN, a cltizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented anew and useful Fuel-Gage for Automobiles, of which the following'is a specification.

In Ford cars of the present construction,

Y the fuel tank is contained within the front seat of the car and an object of this invention is to provide a sight-float gage whereby the driver or attendant of such cars can readily advise himself as to the amount of fuel containedin the tank and to so construct and arrange the gage that it Will be practically out of the way of the driver and passengers of the car and can always be easily read by theattendant while filling the tank as well as at other times when the light is sufficient, and without removing the cushion or filler cap or disturbing the occupants of the can.

An object is to so construct'the. device that it can be attached to the car easily andin the subjoined description.

The accompanying drawings illustrate va' rious embodiments of the invention Figar'e 1 iwvfragmental view showing one embodiment of the invention applied to a car, afrag'ment of which is shown in. section. v

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of some of the parts in Fig. 1, the tank and portions of the gage being shown in section.

F'g. 3 is a plan section on line indicated by 00 Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 4 isa broken sectional elevation on line indicated by :12, Figs. 5 and 8 of a slightly different embodiment of the invention than shown in the preceding figures.

Fig. 5 is a side elevation of Fig. l. Fig. 6 is an enlarged plan section on line indicated by 00", Figs. 4; and 5.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 15, 1917.

Renewed February 26, 1917. Serial No. 151,143.

Arrows on the section lines of the difi'erent views indicate the direction of sight.

The construction shown in Figs. 1 to 6 will first be described. 1

The constructionembodying a-seat '1 with riser 2, a flo0r3, a cylindrical fuel tank 4, a strainer sediment bulb orcup 5, a'shut-ofl valve 6, a draincock 7 and a carburetor pipe line 8 -is typical of the form of automobile knownto the trade as the Ford car and is used inthis'instance forillustrating the invention because of the perfect adaptabihty of the invention to said car, it being understood that the invention is not confinedstrictly to application to Ford cars but that the invention may be used, possibly with slight modifications, to adapt it to other than Ford cars.

4 The drain cock 7 has heretofore been attached directly to the drain cup 5 but for the purpose of this invention I remove, the

drain cup and fasten it to a T 8 which I attach to the drain cup, 5 and said T is provided with a somewhat flexible L-shaped tube or pipe 9 of copper or the like which is connected at one end to the T by a union 10 and which is connected at its other end bya union 11 to my novelly constructed and novelly arranged direct reading gage-12 that will now be described.

The gage 12 is provided'with lower and upper endcaps 13, 14:, the cap 13 having a threaded orifice 15 to receive the union 11, and the'cap 14 being provided with an air vent 16.. The caps 13, 14 are practically alike with "the exception of the comparative sizes of the orifice 15 and vent ,16, and they are provided inside with orificed washers 17 of leather, or the like, against which rest the ends of a transparent gage-tube 18 that may be of glass, there being other washers 19 of leather or the like surrounding the gage-tube and flush with the ends thereof.

The caps 13, 14 are held toward one an other so as to support the gage-tube 18 and to press the ends of the gage-tube tightly against the washers 17 by a. substantially cylindrical shell 20 provided at the ends with screw-threaded portions 21 which may be integral with the shell as in Fig. 2 or may be separate as in Fig. 4 and which are screwthreaded into the caps 13, 1% respectively,

i there being packing 22 that may be made of string coated with shellac and that surrounds the gage tube 18 between the lower end of the shell 20 and the washer 19 inthe f cap 13.

The shell "20 in Fig. 4 is fastened to the threaded portions 21 by any suitable means or process'as by sweating; and at the same time spacing sleeves 23 are also sweated in-- side the ends of the shell 20, said sleeves just nicely fitting around the gage-tube 18. The spacing sleeves 23 are used for all of the -forms.--

By this construction, the sleeves 23 are flush with the respective ends or threaded portions 21 of the shell 20 to form perfect seatsfor the packing 22 so as to make a perfectly tight connection and avoid leakage,

especially at the lower end, tightness at the upper end not being of paramount im I protecting tube 18. 1

portance;and the sleeves 23 also serve to slightly space apart the gage-tube l8 and shell for the reason hereinafter set forth. It is thus seen that the caps 13, 14, shell 20 and threadedportions 21 together form a holder or sheath for the gage- It is understood that the shell 20' may be constructed of pipe cut into suitable lengths, a tubular casting as in Figs. 1 to 3 or sheet metalrcut or stamped and then rolled to a cylindrical form as in Figs. 4 to 6. v

The'shell 20 is provided with a white inside face 24 and an indicator is provided in the form of a sphericalsight-float 25 which may be of cork dyed a suitable color, preferably red, and coated with shellac.

r The sight-float 25 is made spherical so as to minimize the friction between it and the gage-tube l8 and eliminate any tendency of the sight-float to stick in the gage-tube, thus insuring perfect free-floating and level-registering of the sight-float.

The shell 20 .is provided longitudinally with a. sight slot 27 which in the form shown ward, the spacing apart hereinbefore noted of the gage-tube l8 and shell 20 being for this pur ose.

The s ell 20 is provided with quantative graduations 29 29, 29, 29 29 ,29, 29 29 '29, 29" representing the capacity in gallons of the tank 4 from the bottom of the tank to I the various quantative levels 30 30 30, 30, 30 30, 30 30, 30, 30 respectively; said graduations reading from the bottom of the tube toward the top and being the numerals one to ten inclusive which are located exactly in the horizontal planes of said levels,

so that when the tank contains one gallon Y of fuel the fuel level in the gage-tube 18 will be exactly at the numeral one and other amounts of fuel in the tank will be correspondingly indicated by the numerals ,two to ten inclusive.

' The distances apart of adjacent graduations 29 to 29" inclusive correspond to the distances apart of adjacent levels 30 120 30 respectively, and saidv distances decrease from the bottom and top of thetanktoward the center according as the tank increas'es in width frorn said bottom and top toward the center. 1 Y

In Figs. 1 to G'the' graduations are on the side of the shell 20 .on the'left-hand margin of the slot 27 and can only be read to ad vantage from that side. 7; j

The shell 20 is provided at a little'distance above itslower end with diametrically opposite'fastening lugs 33 which tray be in-,

tegral with the shell 20 as in F ig'. 3-or fas' tened by any suitable m'eans'such as a.'Semicylindrical collar 34 and rivets 35.

The lugs 33 are provided with perforations 36 to receive'fastening screws'37 or the like which are screwed into the floor 3. It is believed that the foregoing detailed description will enable those skilledin the art to make the device and apply it to a car and put said device in working condition I claim i A gage comprising a transparent tube, lower and upper screw threaded caps at the respective ends of the tube, said upper cap having a vent, a cylindrical sheet metal slotted shell surrounding. the tube, threaded portions fastened to the opposite ends of the shell and screwed into the caps, spacers be tween the tube and the shell and flush with the-endso-f the shell, and washers between the flush ends of the shell and spacers and the inside endsof the caps.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set -my handat Los Angeles, California, this 30th day of June 1914.

' JARVIS A. BBITTON.

In presence of JAMES R. TOWNSEND,

mount: H. lliLns. 

